Just returned from re-taking Defensive Handgun 3 at Oregon Firearms Academy, after a couple of years away from formal training.
I've been taking classes with OFA since my first Basic Handgun Safety course in 2008. I brought my big boat anchor Ruger GP100 to that one, which I had intended to use as a conceal carry piece (coming from a non-gun environment and raised on 1950's cowboy movies, a gun meant a revolver like Hoppalong Cassidy carried)... OK, it's been a few years.
Short takeaway from DH3? We worked on the same fundamentals we learned in DH2 and DH1. What? No cool-guy you tube gun handling? Well, when, in DH3, targets start moving and shooters are moving, and non-shoot innocents are moving too, then getting the 4-point draw stroke down tighter, so you don't sweep your hand or knee when your grip is getting sweaty starts to look pretty important. Likewise trigger control for accuracy in a chaotic situation - fundamental and also glaringly crucial. Want to be fast? Do a tactical reload without wasted motion - harder to do than to say.
The force-on-force scenarios are not airsoft slug fests at OFA. Instead of training gunfighter ninjas, these experiences are designed to produce thinkers. I know that I will take all the help I can get in that department. I've messed up in every scenario I've gone through at OFA and I still run them through my mind years later. Combine the social conditioning to be 'nice' and 'polite' with the false sense of thinking I am a bad dude 'cause I have a gun - and all kinds of idiocy can ensue. Better to learn this stuff in a class instead of the street.
Go to OFA. Learn. You need to do this.
I've been taking classes with OFA since my first Basic Handgun Safety course in 2008. I brought my big boat anchor Ruger GP100 to that one, which I had intended to use as a conceal carry piece (coming from a non-gun environment and raised on 1950's cowboy movies, a gun meant a revolver like Hoppalong Cassidy carried)... OK, it's been a few years.
Short takeaway from DH3? We worked on the same fundamentals we learned in DH2 and DH1. What? No cool-guy you tube gun handling? Well, when, in DH3, targets start moving and shooters are moving, and non-shoot innocents are moving too, then getting the 4-point draw stroke down tighter, so you don't sweep your hand or knee when your grip is getting sweaty starts to look pretty important. Likewise trigger control for accuracy in a chaotic situation - fundamental and also glaringly crucial. Want to be fast? Do a tactical reload without wasted motion - harder to do than to say.
The force-on-force scenarios are not airsoft slug fests at OFA. Instead of training gunfighter ninjas, these experiences are designed to produce thinkers. I know that I will take all the help I can get in that department. I've messed up in every scenario I've gone through at OFA and I still run them through my mind years later. Combine the social conditioning to be 'nice' and 'polite' with the false sense of thinking I am a bad dude 'cause I have a gun - and all kinds of idiocy can ensue. Better to learn this stuff in a class instead of the street.
Go to OFA. Learn. You need to do this.
